You know? You make it really hard for me to color inside the lines. It's your fault, actually.
That list of people to consider would be good for at least 1000 words before I locked in on my 90 year old self. You know that is only 18 years away for me, right? This sort of thinking is exactly what tossed me into a funk for an entire year. I'd just end up telling me "Don't stop. Don't even slow fucking down."
I'd love to 'do' the monument to Haj Ali. He was the official US Army Camel Herder recruited from Arabia (that's what it was called, then) to try to use Camels for freight and supplies in this part of the world. It worked! But the Dodge Brothers submitted a bid to the Army in 1910 and it became apparent really fast that they were on to something with cars and trucks. So the Army canceled the camel project. That's all, no follow up, just stopped paying Haj Ali and ended the food shipments. So he turned them loose and they thrived. They migrated off to the north east and arrived at the Navajo reservation about the time the depression got really bad. The Navajo discovered that camel made fine eating and soon there were no more. It's said an entire generation of Navajo children grew to adulthood eating Camel Soup.
The locals couldn't pronounce Haj Ali's name so they renamed him Hi Jolly. He lived up into the 50s. As Hi Jolly.
You see what I did here? I did some of my scofflaw type writing in the comments! No rule breaking for me.
That's a good story and one I wasn't aware of, except for the Dodge aspect.
The first explorers here realise quickly that horses sucked for the inland areas, arid and deserts mainly, and brough. Mel's and their cameleers from Afghanistan for the job. That worked. Only, they turned them loose, they bred up, and now we have over a million camels in the interior of the country. (there's no one there to eat them).
They are a bit of a problem and are culled now and then, but generally they live a good life.
One can have camel steak here, in the NT (Northern Territory) and I have personally. It's actually not too bad at all.
Anyway, thanks for the good story. Interesting really. I feel a bit sorry for old Ali though, getting dumped like that.
There's actually a little more to the story. In 1910 there was a big problem with Mexican bandits (actually patriots, depending on which side of the border you call home). Pancho Villa and his people so the US sent an expeditionary force to quell the rebellion or incursion or whatever.
Black Jack Pershing was in command and two of his lieutenants led like 10 guys in two Dodge touring cars (they didn't have any trucks yet) to steal hay for the horses and mules. George Patton in command and Douglas McArthur his shave tail lieutenant. Patton certainly took to the mechanized force...
That's a cool element to the story and some rather notable names there.
Very interesting story about Hi Jolly lol...I really hope my 80-year-old self is a little like you. You seem cool. I know life is deeper than what meets the eye, but I like that you are still pushing as time goes on.
A lot of people want to live in the Bahamas chilling and doing nothing in retirement...I want to be hustling hard for another generation to see if they can benefit from it.